Insights from HCEG Thought Leaders

Consumer Experience has been a high-ranking item on HCEG’s Top 10 list of challenges, issues, and opportunities facing healthcare leaders over the last decade. And last week, 500+ healthcare industry professionals gathered in Chicago at the 2019 AHIP Consumer Experience & Digital Health Forum to present and discuss the importance of the healthcare consumer experience and various approaches to leveraging digital health platforms and tools to effect an improved consumer experience.

Look forward to 2020 and more information and insight shared by healthcare industry leaders, innovators, and change-makers improving healthcare and health delivery.

What Should Be Keeping Health Care Executives up at Night?

As costs continue to rise, more financial responsibility is shifted to individuals, and non-traditional companies disrupt the traditional healthcare space, executives and industry leaders are under tremendous pressure to transform their organizations due to the challenge of providing coverage for healthcare services offering reasonable outcomes at a fair price.

Check out this blog post to learn more about the following topics addressed by three health industry leaders: Ian K. Gordon, Dr. Esteban Lopez, and Ferris Taylor:

• How challenges, issues, & opportunities have evolved over the last few years • How they’re transforming and innovating their organizations • What excites them about the future for health care • How health plans help support health care consumer’s • How socioeconomic status and social determinants of health impact health plans • The role of health plans in addressing the social determinants of health and what work they’re doing • What they’re doing right and what do they need to do better • What them up at night with respect to the policy actions or industry trends

How Technology Innovation Will Play a Critical Role in Prevention

In the session titled “How Technology Innovation Will Play a Critical Role in Prevention” at last week’s 2019 AHIP Consumer Experience & Digital Health Forum in Chicago, a gaggle of industry leaders, innovators and change-makers shared their thoughts and ideas on the critical role new innovations in technology will play in preventing serious injuries among the fastest-growing demographic—aging Boomers.

Neel Mehta from Honor moderated a panel consisting of Bryan Adams of Best Buy Health, Dr. Ari Melmed, MD of Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Rajeev Ronanki from Anthem, and Faraz Shafiq of Cambia Health Solutions. The panel shared their take and experiences on the following:

• Latest innovations that can help keep older adults healthy and safe in their homes • The impact technology might have on the social determinants of health • How these technology innovations can result in better outcomes for well-being

Read this post for Highlights on How Technology Innovation Will Play a Critical Role in Prevention of Accidents and Disease

Creating Impactful Member Enrollment Correspondence

HCEG member Sheri Johnson, AVP of Member Enrollment and Billing joined fellow UCare AVP of Customer Service Julie Feirtag presented how their company utilized a cross-functional approach to update member enrollment-related correspondence to improve member engagement and experience, drive member action and support the customer service team.

See this sample of select slides on how Sheri and Julie orchestrated a team to define and employ simple language and standard templates to transform enrollment-related letters into actionable, easy-to-understand correspondence. And check out a few of the specific processes used, steps taken, changes made, and outcomes achieved they shared in their session.

We’ll be sharing more from last week’s AHIP CDF in the coming weeks. For more information, insight, and ideas on healthcare innovation and the transformation of healthcare, subscribe to our eNewsletter and consider becoming a member of the HealthCare Executive Group.

Latest innovations that can help keep older adults healthy and safe in their homes

The impact technology might have on the social determinants of health

How these technology innovations can result in better outcomes for well-being

The remainder of this post shares a few highlights from the session. Access all recordings mentioned in this blog post here.

Highlights on How Technology Innovation Will Play a Critical Role in Prevention

The following are some of the questions that moderator Neel Mehta presented to the panel and some panelist responses to those questions. You can listen to the entire recording – admittedly not of the best quality but still enlightening – here. Specific starting and ending points in the recording are noted below and link to the audio recordings.

Fariz Shafiq: On average, caregivers provide 32 hours a week of unpaid caregiving, essentially a full-time, unpaid job imposing a financial and emotional impact on the caregiver. As a health plan, we recognize that caregiving is an extremely important service. Fariz shared how his organization equips caregivers best:

Help with scheduling appointments and checking the efficiency of patient schedules

Reconciling medications

Help with understanding and paying bills

Rajeev Ronacki: Keeping on top of local resources is a real challenge. We provide members and patients digital apps and help identify and connect members and patients with community-based orgs that can assist them. And we provide an online marketplace where members and patients can also self-serve.

Tech and Touch Must Be Balanced for Innovative Prevention of Accidents & Disease

Q2: The elderly caregiver population, whether it’s home care, provider or family member, are difficult to reach and engage with, regardless of whether they are tech-savvy or not. What are some of the ways you reach this population? (06:45-08:47)

Bryan Adams: Everything starts with balancing the tech vs. touch concept. We want to leverage technology into the home and surround that with robust services. This will ultimately move the needle not only for the healthcare consumer but also for the healthcare system as a whole.

We have ‘healthcare caring centers’ staffed by people encouraged and trained to have a high level of empathy interaction. Mostly telephonic relationships that establish and nurture a tech vs. touch relationship with the senior.

Q3: One of the things that is appealing to tech innovation in healthcare is Artificial Intelligence. What do you think in your perspective as a provider is the role of the healthcare provider in respect to AI? (08:53-12:53)

Dr. Ari Melmed: It’s a new time for providers and physicians. The role of the provider is to partner with the patient and to address their concerns. To get them the right answers. The amount of information available to everyone online is overwhelming. Staying up to date as a physician nowadays only takes 21 hours a day.

Faraz Shafiq: Computers are helping doctors getting better at diagnoses. Healthcare is so complex and the volume of information so great and often so nuanced that AI-powered assistance is needed. (10:42-12:09)

Using Technology & Data to Understand Social Determinants of Health

Q4: I have found that on the medical side there’s a mountain of data. And on the social side there’s a huge and growing amount of data. How can technology support the understanding of how social and community health factors influence outcomes? (13:10 – 15:00)

Rajeev Ronacki: I think the question is what do we do about it? How do we react to it? How do we make it more democratized?

Q5: What are some of the challenges in integrating data, making it uniform, and making it ‘analyzable?’ (15:33-19:18)

Rajeev Ronacki: Roughly 80% of the work we need to do on any AI initiative is data prep: obtaining the data, looking at the quality of data, cleansing and integrating it, creating standards for uniformity. There’s nothing secret about it.

Bryan Adams: Brick and mortar locations enable the touch component of the critical need to balance technology and human touch/interaction mentioned before. This is particularly important for the senior population.

Being entrenched in the neighborhood and being involved with community care initiatives helps us to better understand and capture social determinants of health unique to that area and then take that information and make it actionable. At our company, we’re giving thought on how to leverage our Geek Squad (20,000 people) and over 1200 retail outlets to engage with health plan members and to advance preventive care.

Q7: If telehealth has not yet reached into the home it is gaining a footprint in places like Best Buy, Walmart, and Walgreens. Are you seeing brick and mortar playing a part in expanding the reach of telehealth? (23:40 – 25:20)

Dr. Ari Melmed: Yes. And there are different ways of thinking about telehealth like onsite work clinics which are playing an important role, schools are developing innovative programs, remote clinics are interfacing with centralized, specialized services.

Q8: How has the Medicare market shifted in trying to support senior’s health? (25:24 – 28:50)

Rajeev Ronacki: Increasingly there’s a consumer preference to do things in the home – particularly in the transition to and from the hospital.

Using TV’s and sensors and voice-assistance to deliver the care that’s needed. I would venture to say that 60-70% of the care that doesn’t need active intervention can be provided in the home. The question is how to deliver it in a way that makes sense.

Bryan Adams: Medicare Advantage as a whole has become a hub of innovation and we’re excited about SSBCI and opening up the ability to address social determinants. (27:31 – 28:38)

Can Technology Address 50% of Preventive Health Measures?

Q9: As Rajeev mentioned, with the right technology 60-70% of the care that doesn’t need active intervention can be provided in the home. What will it take to get to widespread adoption of the minimum technology infrastructure needed to address 50% of preventive medicine? (28:50 – 32:13)

Rajeev Ronacki: Some sort of super simple, USB-type device that’s widely adopted by consumers. Installation and implementation need to be simplified and cost-effective.

Listen here from more on how technology in the home may address 50% of preventative medicine.

Q10: Are there any examples of technologies that are starting to scratch the surface of being pretty easy to use? (33:35 – 38:50)

Rajeev Ronacki: Wireless sensors and other devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated and easy to use.

Bryan Adams: Passive devices that operate in the background and do not require the member/patient to do anything special or change any behavior. Devices that measure ADL’s and allow the member/patient to keep living their life without any special attention.

Dr. Ari Melmed: Devices that provide feedback on a real-time basis to drive behavior change. Tools to extract information from medical records and help the physician more quickly understand salient aspects of the patient.

As costs continue to rise, more financial responsibility is shifted to individuals, and non-traditional companies disrupt the traditional healthcare space, executives and industry leaders are under tremendous pressure to transform their organizations due to the challenge of providing coverage for healthcare services offering reasonable outcomes at a fair price.

Costs & Transparency, Consumer Experience, and Delivery System Transformation – the key themes of the AHIP-Consumer Experience & Digital Health Forum – also ranked as the top three items on the 2020 HCEG Top 10 list of challenges, issues, and opportunities facing healthcare leadership. In addition, ‘Holistic Individual Health’ is ranked as #6.

Ferris Taylor kicked off the session by asking Dr. Lopez “What keeps you up at night?”

The value that payers bring – is not networks or care management services – although those are important. Their true value is data and analytics. How do we consume data and use that data to derive value for our members so they can stay healthier? How do we use that data to engage with our providers to deliver value-based healthcare?

Over the last several years, providers and payers have become more efficient. At the same time, members have not become worse off but they’re also not becoming better. But there’s still opportunity.

Health plans need to ask:

How do we use the data we have in a meaningful way?

How do we couple other readily available data with open-source consumer information and other types of information we have about our members so we can predict outcomes, predict disease, and find the channels where we can best engage our members

How we can find the channels where members/patients can best be engaged?

New Generations Demand New Levels of Engagement & Value

External disruptors are out there, and they know how to engage healthcare industry incumbents. People want the Amazon Experience and right now, healthcare is NOT like the Amazon Experience. Especially as we look at Millennials, Generation Z and other generations of Digital Natives, we know that they will not stand for the experiences they are having today in healthcare.

The health system itself and health care payers specifically have spent a large portion of their existence contemplating their own value buttons. We look at things very much from an inside-out perspective. And that’s been very useful until we’ve come into the age of consumerism. At this time, we need to continue, which we’ve started that migration, to look at things from the ‘outside in.’

We talk about the power of members. The power of consumers. As opposed to people. We don’t own them. They own themselves. The more information we have, the more we can create models and services and products that meet the needs of PEOPLE!

Health plans talk about social determinants of health. I like to think about ‘Social Determinants of Health’ as ‘Social Determinants of Individual Happiness’ – of which health is a component.

Ian related a scenario highlighting how many health plans are not properly focusing on holistic health of the individual. Some highlights include:

Health plans give members things they want to address to drive down medical loss ratio; as opposed to the broader aspect of overall happiness of which health is a component. We give members program’s and tell them to lose weight and do more activities. And then we wonder why they don’t succeed. And the reason they don’t succeed is because they ate too much.

We need to look people more holistically at individuals, focus more on their individual needs, find out what is our role, data, access to healthcare, the digital transformation needed to create that personalized service are all the key things, I think, that are necessary.

Healthcare is complex and it’s hard to learn but so are a lot of other things. And given the right amount of time, the other organizations (disruptors) will encroach upon the health plan. So, health plans must focus on the holistic component of individuals. What makes them happy and improves their lives. And we need to figure out how to do that with data and become an expert at that. Or partner with others who can do that. And we need to stop trying to compete on the commodity-based components of our business.

Barriers to Improved Health – A Broader Definition of Social Determinants of Health

After both Dr. Lopez and Ian Gordon shared some of their insight and ideas on social determinants of health, Ferris Taylor noted that social determinants of health can also be considered as Barriers to Improved Health. Dr. Lopez shared his insight as a physician in the Emergency Room of a hospital serving a low-income area.

Listen to Dr. Lopez’s ideas on how providers, doctors, nurses, payers, and others can help address barriers to improved health: 13:30 – 17:40

And Ian’s follow on to Dr. Lopez’s ideas based on Ian’s experience with Habitat for Humanity: 17:41 – 19:38

‘Costs & Transparency’ and ‘Consumer Experience’ are ranked in the two top spots on the 2020 HCEG Top 10 list of challenges, issues, and opportunities facing healthcare executives in 2020. These two areas of focus for health plans, health systems, and providers – risk-bearing or otherwise – are also frequently referenced on the various lists of ‘Healthcare Predictions & Trends for 2020.’

In a presentation at this week’s 2019 WEDI Winter Conference, Dan Mendelson Founder of Avalere shared some eye-opening facts and statistics that underscore why “Cost & Transparency” is ranked as the top issue facing HCEG member organizations.

84% of consumers believe drug prices are unreasonable

40% of Americans have saved enough to cover a $1,000 emergency

57% of employees are offered a high deductible plan

$13K Average employee health benefit cost

Affordability is #1 issue for Democrats (45%) & Republicans (30%)

Higher premiums, higher deductibles, increasing co-insurance, and surprise medical billing are four trends that really took off about a decade ago and show no signs of slowing down. See more presentations from the 2019 WEDI Winter Conference here.

Strategies to Improve Transparency and Lower Costs

This time of year all the experts, thought leaders and prognosticators are making their predictions about 2020 and beyond. And Cost, Transparency, and Consumer Experience are frequently referenced items on those lists. The following are some of the more detailed predictions, strategies, and tactics to address the growth of medical and pharmaceutical costs and improve transparency and access.

Over the past five years, Consumer Experience has ranked in the #2 spot on HCEG’s Top 10 list four times. HCEG defines Consumer Experience as “Understanding, addressing and assuring that all consumer interactions and outcomes are easy, convenient, timely, streamlined, and cohesive so that health fits naturally into the ‘life flow’ of every individual’s, family’s and community’s daily activities.”

As with ‘Costs & Transparency,” many of the lists of predictions and trends for 2020 and beyond include Consumer Experience as a prominently ranked item. The following are some ideas, strategies, and tactics healthcare organizations may consider to improve the healthcare consumer experience:

Utilize blockchain technology to create a transparent and tamper-proof ledger of all member/patient transactions

Invest in member enrollment and patient recruitment programs

Service members and patients where they are outside the four walls of your office, hospital or practice

Chatbots for self-service and scaling member/patient interactions

Virtual reality providing an immersive experience for members and patients. A virtual tour of a health facility, demonstrating an example procedure and helping patients cope with pain are some examples

Offering a personal experience when it comes to healthcare is vital and today’s healthcare organizations must focus on utilizing digital health technologies to enhance and advance the experience of the healthcare consumer. Given the entry and disruption from non-traditional players like Amazon who’ve set the standard for consumer expectations, not doing so will surely result in extinction.

More on Costs, Transparency, and Healthcare Consumer Experience

Next week HCEG members and select sponsor partners will be presenting at the 2019 AHIP Consumer Experience & Digital Health Forum in Chicago. HCEG Executive Director Ferris Taylor and Ian Gordon, Former Sr VP & COO of Regence, will be presenting What Should Be Keeping Health Care Executives up at Night? They’ll share more ideas, strategies, and tactics healthcare organizations can use to improve the healthcare consumer experience. Learn more here.

HCEG member Sheri Johnson, AVP of Member Enrollment and Billing at UCare will present Creating Impactful Member Enrollment Correspondence on December 10th at 3:15 pm. Learn more here.

And Mark Nathan, CEO & Founder of HCEG sponsor partner Zipari, Inc. will present Revolutionizing Consumer Experience With a Single Platform Built for Health Insurance on December 10th at 4:10 pm. Learn more here.

As America celebrates Thanksgiving, the HealthCare Executive Group (HCEG) is honored to have the support of our sponsor partners and acknowledge the contribution these leading healthcare companies have provided and continue to provide to our healthcare executive members, industry advisors, and associates throughout the year. Through the support of the companies highlighted below, HCEG is able to provide a comprehensive package of information, events, and networking opportunities throughout the year.

The HealthCare Executive Group offers our sincere thanks to these leading vendors of products and services that help improve health outcomes and lower costs.

HealthCare Executive Group – Gold Sponsors

Appian provides a low-code development platform that accelerates the creation of high-impact business applications. Many of the world’s largest organizations use Appian applications to improve customer experience, achieve operational excellence, and simplify global risk management and compliance. For more information, visit www.appian.com.

Softheon delivers cloud-based solutions that create a retail-like, user-friendly experience and provide personalized communication and real-time support to boost member engagement. Cost effective, and configurable software that supports health plans and states with enrollment, member billing, and reporting for over 3.2M Americans.

Care management belongs at the center of healthcare, powering every element in its ecosystem. HELIOS is the first solution capable of seamlessly connecting all data points in the care continuum, and leveraging the workflows and analytics to make a significant impact. HELIOS provides the digital connective tissue between payers, providers, and members.

Built to Transform Interactions between Clinicians, Pharmacists, and Patients

The First and Only Consumer Experience Platform Built Specifically for Health Insurance

Zipari is the only consumer experience technology company to exclusively specialize in health insurance and offer native understanding of the industry, which means we instinctively understand our clients’ goals.

HealthCare Executive Group – Silver Sponsors

Change Healthcare consulting is a catalyst for your value-based healthcare system. Change Healthcare is a healthcare technology company that offers software, analytics, network solutions, and technology-enabled services to help create a stronger, more collaborative healthcare system. Change Healthcare helps deliver measurable value not only at the point of care, but also before, after, and in between care episodes.

Health insurers must act quickly to launch new offerings targeted at member populations in specific market segments. Whether a government program, commercial or individual product, or dental or TPA offering, HealthEdge works with transformative health plans to create and maintain a competitive advantage.

The HealthCare Executive Group (HCEG) was honored to co-host a special Executive Leadership Roundtable October 30th at the 2nd Annual HLTH “Create Health’s Future” Conference. HCEG partnered with the International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP), the Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) and Dr. Sunnie Giles for the Boardroom-style event. The title of the roundtable was Flying the Plane While Building the Plane: Do You Have What It Takes to Pilot the Transformation of Healthcare?

Over a period of 3 hours, Charles Stellar, CEO of WEDI, moderated a panel of innovation and healthcare thought leaders as each shared their respective insight

Special thanks to our sponsor partner Appian for hosting this Executive Leadership Roundtable!

Insight into Importance of Trust to Pilot the Transformation of Healthcare

Moderator Charles Stellar introduced each panelist and asked them to present their insight and ideas on healthcare innovation. These initial presentations were then followed by a Q & A period that consumed the majority of the three-hour-long roundtable event. Some of the highlights of this extended period of interaction between panelists and ELR participants are presented below.

View the entire video of the Executive Leadership Roundtable here. Thanks to HLTH for providing this recording.

Lynn Hanessian – Trust in Healthcare is Low and Declining

Lynn Hanessian began her introductory presentation by stating that “If I had a nickel for every time somebody said trust in the HLTH conference, I would be able to pay for my healthcare coverage for about a month.” Indeed trust was mentioned many, many times at the HLTH conference. As a healthcare leader with 19 years of experience focusing on the importance of trust to improve healthcare outcomes and lower costs, Lynn was eminently qualified to speak to the importance and impact of trust as a precursor to true innovation.

Lynn proceeded to present a few slides to let people know what the status of trust in health care systems around the world and emphasized that the story of trust in health care is very different here in the United States than it is anywhere else around the globe. Some highlights of Lynn’s opening comments include:

Compared to other industry sectors, those of us who work in and with health care companies don’t trust our industry any more than those folks that are outside the healthcare industry

In 2019, trust in hospitals and clinics in the US plummeted by an unprecedented 7% compared to data tracked over the last 5 years – during a time when every other sub-sector of the healthcare industry went up

Survey shows people blame hospitals and clinics the most for the cost of health care

People who define themselves as Democrats vs. Republicans have very different views on healthcare and underscore that a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing healthcare – such as Medicare For all – will simply not work.

Start by Championing Healthcare Trust, Innovation, and Change at Home

Additionally, Lynn urged healthcare leaders to start making a move to improve healthcare by telling their stories at home. If your employees don’t understand how that hospital bill got the way it was or how you set your drug prices or the solutions that you’re implementing or the new technologies that are going to change the patient experience, then they can’t be your champion and you haven’t done your job.

Dr. Sunnie Giles – Command and Control Leadership is Anathema to Innovation

Dr. Giles shared how businesses have the operating environment, leadership, basis of competition, and structure have evolved from Medieval-Feudal times through the Industrial Revolution to the modern-day Digital Revolution. Sunnie shared how the focus on maximizing operating efficiency that evolved during the Industrial Revolution brought initiatives such as Six Sigma, ERP, Balanced Scorecards and things like that.

Sunnie went on to share that, while a command and control leadership environment characterizing the Industry Revolution – and still very common in today’s business environment – focuses on producing success through operating efficiencies. She presented how that environment does not allow or support the different, varying opinions, human connections and emotional intelligence that are basic requirements that effect true innovation.

Everything is viewed as a resource including capital land, equipment, raw materials, and even people. Over the decades, legal departments have been trying to systematically remove any elements of emotion in the workplace. Emotions are messy, unpredictable and represent a legal liability. As a result, much of today’s business environment has become very sterile and devoid of human connection. Businesses have profit-maximizing and human connection minimizing machines.

Dr. Jason Woo, MD – Importance of Changing Mindset vs Behaviors

Dr. Woo shared his insight into how when healthcare leaders try to innovate and change things that their innovation initiatives tend to focus on changing behaviors but don’t often address mindsets and culture. Too much focus on changing the behavior results in behaviors such as get clinicians to order certain tests, adopt certain procedures, and change certain relationships. Leaders tend to bring in new training, new strategies, and new consultants to try to get people to behave differently. Innovation programs disrupt people by attempting to force behavior changes without addressing cultural aspects and changing people’s mindset.

By adding layers and layers of demands for behavior change, time and resources are wasted because people resist change when culture does not encourage and support mindset change. Dr. Woo encouraged participants to think about the people their innovation initiatives are disrupting and asked participants how many times they’ve folks gone through process improvement changes.

Nearly all hands from the 70+ participants in the rooms were raised.

When Planting the Seed of Innovation – Tend to the Soil: The People

Jason posited questions about innovation: What’s the right seed to plant to grow innovation? What’s the right technology? What’s the right tool than I need to use to fix this problem?

Dr. Woo shared that if we plant the right seed, we’ll get better outcomes. But the challenge is that while we may plant a seed that’s the best genetically modified seed ever and it may grow. It may produce something less than optimal if leaders don’t cultivate and attend to the soil it’s planted in and will probably not grow as well.

Leaders need to focus on the developing mindsets of the people impacted by the innovation seed planted.

Dr. DeLeys Brandman – Demonopolizing & Amplifying Best-Practice Care

Dr. Brandman shared an overview of Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) – a movement to demonopolize knowledge and amplify the capacity to provide best-practice care for underserved people all over the world. Originally developed to provide innovative treatment for hepatitis C, Project Echo is has expanded across diseases and specialties, across urban and rural locales, across different types of delivery services, and even across the globe.

At its core, Project Echo is about moving information rather than people. Implicit, explicit, and tacit knowledge is shared in actionable chunks rapidly to those best positioned to utilize the information. Essentially echoing an agile approach to knowledge transfer.

One of the hallmarks of HCEG’s roundtable events is open and intimate interaction between panelists and participants. And the ELR at the 2019 HLTH Conference was no exception. The following are some of these questions and panelist responses. We’re providing an audio reply to these questions to minimize the length of this post.

Ensuring Trust with Patients is Key to Transformation of Healthcare

What are some of the more impressive means in each of your experiences for patient empowerment, and tools, and innovation?

One of the things that we’ve seen is the rise in maternal death rates within the United States. How do you see a change in culture and using innovation to help curb maternal death rates within the United States while also ensuring trust with your patients? – Alexa Cushman, Sr. Industry Marketing Manager at Appian

Collaborating in a Many-to-Many Model

Can you give some examples of techniques that you’ve seen in changing the culture in the many-to-many model along the lines of authority and responsibilities? I see us falling short there partly as an industry as we collaborate amongst each other and we talk about innovation in collaboration together. Whose authoritative and/or who’s responsible for each of the variable components?

Connect with Each Other and The HealthCare Executive Group

All in all, the Executive Leadership Roundtable at HLTH was an informative and engaging event allowing participants ample opportunity to interact with panelists and each other on the challenges, issues, and opportunities for innovation in healthcare. Given that the roundtable was the afternoon of the last day of the 4-day HLTH forum, all participants and presenters considered it a great success!

HCEG appreciates the collaboration with Dr. Brandman, Dr. Woo, Dr. Giles, and Lynn Hanessian and extends a special thanks to Charles Stellar of WEDI for moderating the panel. And, again, we want to thank our sponsor partner Appian for helping make this event possible.

If you enjoyed the 2019 HLTH “Create Health’s Future” Conference and would like to participate in a greatly scaled-down yet equally valuable version of this gathering of healthcare leaders, consider being part of the HealthCare Executive Group’s 2020 Annual Forum taking place in Boston. MA on September 21– 23, 2020. Moreover, if you’re a healthcare executive who can benefit from entending your network and collaborating with your C-suite peers, consider becoming a HCEG member.

The 2nd Annual 2019 HLTH Conference – billed as the event to “Create Health’s Future” – took place in Las Vegas last week. In true Las Vegas fashion, the HLTH organizers created an event that was brighter, shinier, informative and certainly more entertaining than last year’s inaugural HLTH event. Unlike some conferences that lean toward specific sub-groups of attendees – like health plans, providers, and investors – the HLTH conference offers something for all of healthcare’s constituents. Over 6000 attendees, speakers, and others representing healthcare providers, payers, life sciences, investors, and government – converged on the MGM Grand hotel to share their insight, ideas, and opinions about creating healthcare’s future.

Something For Everyone at 2019 HLTH Conference

As is the case with most healthcare conferences nowadays, sessions at HLTH were organized into tracks whose content varied each day. Over the four-day long HLTH conference, a total of 19 different track themes were presented. Like last year’s HLTH event, organizers assigned all sessions in each track to the same room location; making it easy to navigate between tracks and sessions. Also similar to last year, there were a few crowded sessions and some rather sparsely populated sessions. An interesting addition to this year’s sessions was the closed captioning displayed on a large screen in front of the presenters.

Based on a review of the HLTH conference agenda and some of the early recaps shared by other attendees and media, a few common threads dominated the HLTH event:

Cost & Transparency Needed to Create Health’s Future

Given the unabated rise in costs, it was no surprise that greater financial transparency was a dominant theme in HLTH keynotes and sessions. Many of the sessions at the HLTH event addressed the importance of providing cost-effective services and products to three groups of people:

Social Determinants of Health – aka ‘Barriers to Health’

As has been quite popular over the past 5-6 years, quite a few speakers and panelists spoke of the need to extend health services beyond the walls of the treatment room and out into the local community.

Not surprisingly, Uber and Lyft – and a number of companies seeking to sit between these non-emergency medical transportation giants – had a significant presence in the sessions and the exhibit hall. Several sessions mentioned other non-medical services that Medicare Advantage and some other plans are offering members – like personal emergency response systems, home safety assessments and modifications, home environmental services like pest control and air conditioning.

Voice Technology Will Be Huge – Just Add Trust to Create Health’s Future

The ‘Voice First’ approach to improving customer and patient experience in the healthcare industry was shared by presenters in the Voice.HLTHtrack. And voice technology was observed as a key aspect of the product and service offerings from more than a handful of HLTH exhibitors.

It should be no surprise to anyone reading this that ‘Building Trust is Essential to Transforming the Healthcare System.’ This sentence was shared over and over and over again in many of the sessions. And the HealthCare Executive Group did its part in promoting this all-important quality that the healthcare industry needs more of.

In the “Unlocking Voice Tech’s Power” session on Tuesday, October 29th, Dr. Rasu Shrestha, MD, MBA of Atrium Health, shared the following in regard to consumer adoption of voice technology:

“Think about trust as perhaps the most valuable currency that exists in healthcare and trust is really difficult to build and to nurture and grow but it’s really easy to break” – Dr. Rasu Shrestha, MD

Read more about how ‘Building Trust is Essential to Transforming the Healthcare System’ in this recent HCEG post.

Non-Traditional Innovators & Return to Bricks and Mortar

It was clear from all the sessions and exhibitors that healthcare is witnessing an insurgence of non-medical providers and a resurgence of traditional, physical locations where health care is delivered:

Larry Merlo of CVS Health shared how CVS is opening up 1400 “Health Hubs” and that traditional and non-traditional ‘providers’ serving health plan members and healthcare patients need to ‘consider all the activities before and after a patient is in a physician’s office.’

Marcus Osborneof Walmartthen went on to echo Merlo’s point by sharing a virtual tour of Walmart’s new Health Center conceptwhere primary care services, diagnostic tests, mental health services, dental, optical, hearing, fitness, and other community health benefits are offered. And then a ‘health navigator’ walks the healthcare recipient through Walmart’s store where they can obtain many of the products they need.

In addition to the above, executives from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Oracle, Samsung, and Apple also shared their insights.

Thinking Outside the Hospital Room to Create Health’s Future

Similar to the return of bricks and mortar service care settings previously mentioned, many of the keynotes, conference sessions and products/services offered by exhibiting vendors at the HLTH conference addressed the growing movement to provide more healthcare in the home. Many of the vendors aspiring to enter this space between traditional hospital places of service and the patient’s home are focusing on coordinating services between established large companies and individual health plan members and patients.

In addition to a focus on coordinating non-medical services and addressing determinants of health impact outcomes and costs, the challenges, issues, and opportunities for providing home-based and telehealth services were the dominant themes.

Realizing Impact of Women in Healthcare

More than a few HLTH sessionsspoke to the need for increased focus on collaborating, integrating, and developing products and services that put individuals – specifically females – and their health needs at the center of improved outcomes and lower costs. With women making the clear majority of healthcare’s buying and usage decisions, it’s no surprise that “gender parity’ was a general theme. Some ways that parity for women in healthcare was advanced at the event include:

Interesting Aspects of HLTH’s Conference

One aspect of the HLTH conference that sets it apart from most all other healthcare conferences – at least those with multiple 1000’s of attendees – is the meals provided by HLTH. Serving a varied, hot meal to 5000+ people is no trivial matter and HLTH did a remarkable job in that regard. Some other interesting ‘accompaniments’ to the HLTH conference – apparently intended to create a relaxing and energizing atmosphere included:

Mimosa’s in the registration line – to calm those early morning nerves and get attendees in the mood for networking

Musical jazz quartet at lunch – pleasant sounds from a quartet of young women

Patio Lounge – a great place to get fresh air and network with fellow attendees

Coffee, tea, and water all day long – to save time waiting in lines and keep the dry desert air at bay

The Bumbys– a very entertaining couple of people who silently and humorously judge your appearance

Docents to guide your way – ever-present individuals to help you find your way and answer your question

Executive Leadership Roundtable – HCEG, CHI, IAIOP and WEDI

Like last year, HCEG partnered with the Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), the International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP), and the Workgroup Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) to present a special three-hour-long roundtable event.

In an effort to Create Health’s Future, HCEG co-hosted a special HCEG Executive Leadership Roundtableat the HLTH conference. We partnered with the Center for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP), Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) and special guests,Dr. Jason Woo, MD, MPH, FACOG, Dr. DeLeys Brandman, MD, andDr. Sunnie Giles to present a three-hour roundtable on the last day of the forum. See “Flying the Plane While Building a Plane: Do you have what it takes to pilot the transformation of healthcare?” for a recap of that special roundtable event.

This event, titled ‘Flying the Plane While Building the Plane: Do You Have What It Takes to Pilot the Transformation of Healthcare?’ offered the opportunity for session attendees to discuss the following:

How the digital revolution makes leadership, transformation and innovation more challenging, especially for healthcare organizations transitioning to a consumer-centric focus

Journalists Help Create Health’s Future – Power Press Party

Dennis Dailey, the publisher of mHealthTimes, held the 4th annual Power Press Party at the 2nd Annual HLTH Conference. The Power Press Party showcased the latest, brightest and very best of healthcare journalism from national healthcare reporters, influential trade journalists, industry publishers, editors, social media ambassadors, and analysts. And great food and drink were served to all!

More Insight and Ideas for Healthcare Executives to Create Health’s Future

HCEG invites healthcare leaders from across the nation to participate in the 10th Annual Industry Pulse research survey. Please consider sharing your insight, experiences, and opinion to help define the issues facing healthcare. Your insight will help to reveal how the industry is responding in today’s uncertain environment. Learn more about this survey and share your insight here.

Health plans and providers have historically been at odds with each other but are now starting to enter various types of formal and informal partnerships. Healthcare vendors who’ve fiercely protected their intellectual property and data for decades are just starting to open up their products and services via API’s and shared processes. And the individuals at the center of the healthcare industry – plan members and patients – have a growing multitude of digital health technologies from which to pick and choose from to improve their health at the lowest possible cost – and with the greatest protection for their privacy and security. All of these actions – essential to truly transforming the healthcare system – require building trust.

Building Trust is the First Step to Meaningful Outcomes

Trust, is defined by Merriam-Webster as: the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something, was a common theme and topic of discussion at the 2019 HLTH Conference taking place in Las Vegas this week.

Importance of Trust in Unlocking Voice Tech’s Power

In “Unlocking Voice Tech’s Power,” a session held on Tuesday, October 29th, trust was identified as a key consideration to address the privacy, accuracy & relevancy of voice-enabled patient services and care delivery. Moderator Daniel Kraft, MD, Founder of Exponential Medicine and panelists Missy Krasner of Amazon, Rasu Shrestha, MD, MBA of Atrium Health, and Jennifer Schneider, M.D., M.S. of Livongo all shared comments about the importance of building trust with the patient to advance digital health adoption.

“Think about trust as perhaps the most valuable currency that exists in healthcare and trust is really difficult to build and to nurture and grow but it’s really easy to break”

“How do we make sure that we use technological capabilities like Amazon Alexa skill sets to build trust, to nurture trust, and to grow trust? And in doing so to really start a revolution”

“How do we up the trust element? How do we make sure that we’re able to contextualize some of the interactions to me the person when I might have several other members in my family also in that household that use the same Alexa device?

“How do I make sure that I’m able to get those right nudges to move my behavior towards where I need to start moving towards so that I can lead the best life possible?”

In addition to insight from other panelists on how to address the public’s declining trust in US health care system, Lynn Hanessian, Chief Strategist at Edelman and Board Member of the Center for Healthcare Innovation will present select findings from the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer – a research study on the levels and impact of trust among today’s consumers.

The 10th Annual Industry Pulse research survey opens today!

And healthcare industry leaders are encouraged to share their take on the challenges, issues, and opportunities they’re facing in 2020 and beyond. Based on the 2020 HCEG Top 10 list and conducted jointly by the HealthCare Executive Group and Change Healthcare, the survey is intended to flesh out and explore what leaders of healthcare organizations may be facing in the immediate future. Everyone reading this post are encouraged to complete the survey and share it with their co-workers and associates. Just taking this survey will provide respondents with thought-provoking questions and offer ideas they may otherwise not be aware of.

2020 HCEG Top 10 as Basis for 10th Annual Industry Pulse Survey

This 10th annual instance of the Industry Pulse collects additional insight, experiences, and opinions on specific items of the 2020 HCEG Top 10 list developed in September 2019 at HCEG’s 31st Annual Forum. The questions, possible responses, and results of the Industry Pulse can provide valuable, relevant data-driven advice and end-to-end industry insights to help healthcare leaders navigate the complexities of our rapidly evolving healthcare system.

Share your Insight Today!

HCEG and Change Healthcare would like to invite healthcare leaders from across the nation to participate in this year’s Industry Pulse research survey and to compare and contrast their own perspectives against the 2020 HCEG Top 10.Please consider sharing your insight, experiences, and opinion as your perspective will help define the issues facing healthcare, and reveal how the industry is responding. Everyone who completes the 10th Annual Industry Pulse Survey will be among the first to receive survey results as well as exclusive access to future webinars, content, and events that will be delivered over the new year; expounding on survey results and providing additional insight and value to all healthcare constituents.

We’re in the middle of a crisis, not only as healthcare leaders transforming our healthcare system but also as Americans. The opioid substance use crisis in America is real and if it’s not already there, it’s coming to your neighborhood – or immediate and extended family soon. How can you help? What small thing might you do?

The First Step to Help Solve Substance Use Crisis

The first step in helping to solve this crisis is acknowledging that it’s not an affliction of the seedy underbelly of our society. Rather it’s a demon that knows nor respects any boundaries. Being afflicted by substance use challenges is rarely, if ever, a choice. It happens to people just like you and me who may have been prescribed opioids after surgery, or to address chronic pain or other ailments.

Nobody grows up with aspirations of becoming addicted to opioids!

Bringing People Together to Address Substance Use Crisis

The second step is doing something more than just admitting the problem. At HCEG, we bring people together to talk about the issues facing healthcare organizations and professionals. But more than just talking about the problems, we discuss and debate solutions, encourage participants to take action and strive to support those actions.

At our recent 31st annual forum in Boston, we heard firsthand from two industry leaders who are doing much more than talking about our substance use crisis. David Henderson, CEO of Kaden Health (formerly Thrivee) and Gregory Marotta, President and CEO of CleanSlate Centers, Inc. shared the different but complementary approaches their companies are taking to help people with substance use problems. As the audience engaged in the conversation with our panel, we heard from real people about their personal experiences with substance use challenges and discussed how to breakdown the “not in my family or neighborhood” attitude.

Take a Small Step Today!

The panel was closed with a challenge to each forum participant to write down and share one action they personally or their organization could – and more importantly would – take to be part of the solution. The energy and conversation following our Substance Use panel were intense and the forum’s consensus was that it would be a crime for us to let it die.

Today, HCEG board members are challenging each and every person who reads this blog post to commit to one action to help address the substance use crisis in America and to share that commitment with us. Please share your commitment to making a difference via any of the following public or private channels. We’ll respect everyone’s privacy and not publish any names or personal information unless informed otherwise.

Our goal is to collect all of your commitments and track the progress and the difference that we as individuals – many almost certainly directly or indirectly impacted by the opioid crisis – are making. We’ll assemble, acknowledge and share those ideas via our upcoming in-person events and virtual channels. Little things do add up to BIG THINGS!